Monday, August 01, 2005

Will Saddam stand trial?

Ever since Saddam Hussein was captured, I have been wondering if he will be allowed to testify -- as we well know, Saddam was quite cozy with the Bush cabal, and has lots of dirt that he has no reason to keep to himself anymore.

I am surprised this story hasn't gotten more play. From the Sunday, July 31st New York Times:

In a curious develpment in the crminal case against Saddam Hussein, the former dictator's legal team said Saturday that he was attacked by a man as he left a courtroom agter a hearing on Thursday. But the American authorities responsible for his security denied that such an incident had occurred, Reuters reported.

Abdul-Haq al-Ani, an Iraqi-British adviser to Mr. Hussein's legal team, said Mr. Hussein and the man had engaged in a brief scuffle before they were separated. The man had been in the courtroom during the hearing but was never identified, said Mr. Ani, who said he had been briefed on the episode by Khalil al-Dulaimi, a lead attorney for Mr. Hussein.

"It was not an accident that someone would stand up and assault him," Mr. Ani said... He said many questions remained, including "how this happened, how the person -- whoever he was -- came to bein the courtroom, and why didn't the Americans protect the man in their custody." Mr. Ani said he did not know whether Mr. Hussein was injured, and repeated attempts to reach Mr. Dulaimi, who Mr. Ani said was the only member of the legal team present, were unsuccessful.

Several attempts to reach officials with the American detainee system in Iraq were also unsuccessful, and the office of the spokesman for the American military command here had no comment on the matter.